18 The Second Illusion

Russel suddenly felt a sweltering heat, immediately making him sweat. He looked around and saw rough brown rock walls and floating stone platforms in pools of lava.

'Am I back in that vision? No… This is a volcano!' Russel panicked.

He threw his arm back and felt his hand grab the handle of his sword. He sighed in relief at the knowledge of having a weapon. He started to make the small jumps between platforms before coming across the entrance to a cave filled with solid ground. He jumped into the cave and started to look around before he heard a loud hiss.

He spun on his heel and drew his sword, coming face to face with a giant scorpion that seemed to have lava coursing across its surface. Russel got into a battle position and waited to see if the scorpion would make the first move. He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his back and looked behind him to see another scorpion with its tail injected into his body. His vision started to blur and become spotty before he could suddenly not see at all.

When Russel awoke he found himself chained up in a room full of other people. He started struggling against the chains until he felt something jab into his leg. He scowled and looked to see Rachel chained up near him.

"Idiot, don't make noise." Rachel reprimanded him.

"Is my sword still on my back?" Russel asked.

"Of course not. They probably took it." She informed Russel.

"What do you mean they?" Russel inquired.

"Giant walking lizard things… They already took three of the others… The screams…" Rachel shuddered.

"Who were they?" Russel asked, voice filled with concern.

"Two young men… And Frederick…" Rachel confessed.

"Damn it…" Russel growled, clenching his fists.

"What about Elizabeth and Oliver?" Russel asked.

"Both are yet to be dragged in." Rachel told him. "They are probably somewhere in the volcano, hopefully together. I was surprised to see you get put in here so fast. In fact, you were the first here."

"I got double teamed by giant scorpions…" Russel defended himself.

Russel heard footsteps and saw a large lizard looking man appear before him. It smiled at him, its giant teeth forming a smile. It started to speak an incomprehensible language, it sounded like the beat was slurring its words in a gruff voice. The lizard reached down and grabbed Russel, starting to drag him. Russel started to struggle and looked back towards Rachel who just stared at the floor. He scowled as he continued to struggle, earning himself a slap across the face from the lizard. The wizard gargles out some more words ash it dragged Russel into another room.

What Russel then saw would be burnt into his mind for the rest of his life. Lying on the ground was the gruesomely shredded remains of the other survivors. Their arms and legs were chopped up and left on tables, their organs left lying on the stone ground bleeding profusely, heads kept in jars, and he saw three other lizardmen feasting on the remains. They threw a head on the ground towards Russel, it was Fredericks. He was missing most of his skin and his eyes and tongue were pulled out with many of his teeth smashed.

"Bastards!" Russel yelled.

He felt himself transition into his demon form and he slammed one of the lizardmen with his wing, knocking him into the wall. He rushed forward and started pounding the chain that bounds his hands into the skull of the lizard, eventually breaking the chain on the now mutilated skull. He turned his attention the other two and launched a beam of energy disintegrating one of the feating lizards. Another lizard threw a handful of guts at Russel, the bloody mass hitting him in the face. Russel snarled and launched forward with a bloodcurdling yell, his fingers going into claws which he used to slash apart the other two lizardmen. He snarled like a beast as he began to tear the room apart looking for his sword. He trashed the room and failed to find the weapon.

Russel ran back into the room full of the lizardman captives and snarled as he saw two groups of lizards holding spears in his direction. He let out two giant energy beams killing all of the lizards instantly. He started to laugh maniacally as he started to kick up the ash that was their bodies. He looked around the room at the survivors with his eyes opened wide in a crazed state.

"Get away from me you freak! Demon!" A girl next to him cried.

"Shut up!" Russel yelled in a crazed hysteria.

Russel decapitated her in one quick slash, before starting to laugh again as the blood flowed from the stump of her neck. Russel spotted another door and ran in, being greeted by a large group of lizardmen, some cowering, and others standing with weapons drawn. Russel tilted his head and released a single blast, killing the majority of them. He then proceeded to slaughter the rest with his claws.

He ran around in the blood, splashing in it like it was rain puddles, then he spotted a familiar blade within the mess. He scurried over and grabbed his sword, pulling it from its sheathe and admirings its beauty as he smiled wickedly. He attached the blade to his back and ran back into the other room where the captives were being held.

"Russel! What is going on with you!? What are you!?" Rachel yelled at him.

Russel snapped his gaze onto her and started to approach her drawing his blade. He lifted it up and pointed the tip towards her heart. He looked at the blade and saw his reflection, temporarily snapping out of his crazed bloodlust. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his forehead causing him to stagger back.

'You mustn't lose control of your power Russel! Once you descend into madness you will lose yourself entirely!' A familiar woman's voice echoed in his head.

Russel screamed out in agony as the pain in his forehead became unbearable. He started to beat his head against his fist trying to stop it, to no avail.

'If you let yourself go now everything will be lost. All these people, your destiny, your aspirations, any chance you have left of finding Kathleen!' The voice spoke once more.

'What am I doing?' Russel thought, his grip loosening around the hilt of his sword.

'Do not listen to her. Embrace your anger, your bloodlust, your hatred! Embrace all these wonderful things and kill them all.' A new voice spoke in his head.

'No this isn't you Russel. Come back to yourself.' The womans voice once again echoed.

Russel let his sword clatter to the ground and he fell to his knees immediately after.

'What was I doing? I lost control somehow…' Russel thought.

He pulled himself to his feet and quickly broke the chain that bound Rachel. He turned and walked out a third door, a look adorned his face of disgust, horror, and confusion at himself.

He emerged into a long hallway of sorts with a thin path of stone cutting through a lake of lava. He started down the path before coming across another group of lizards. He calmly drew his sword and started to exchange blows with them, though not entirely engaged as he was still lost in his head.

'I don't understand this power… Last time my body became engulfed in flames giving me greater power than ever, but knocked me out for nearly a day… Today I lost control after seeing Fredericks remains…' Russel thought.

At this point, Russel stood alone among the bodies of the lizards. He put his sword away and continued down the pathway entering into a large room where a giant lizard stood clad in armor with a giant claymore in its hand.

"Well well, Russel. Looks like you already found the weak point of the spell." The spellcaster's voice spoke.

"I highly doubt you would make it this easy." Russel spoke coldly.

"Why not? You gave me quite the show moments ago when you killed all the lizardmen and your own comrade! Truly, that was a fantastic thing to watch and I thank you for it." The caster laughed. "Maybe this is my way of thanking you."

"By throwing me into a fight to the death against a giant reptile." Russel scowled.

"Of course! That's the fun part." The caster stated.

Russel sighed and drew his sword. He grabbed a rock off the ground and threw it as hard as he could towards the lizard, hitting it in the back of its helmet letting out a loud ring from the rock hitting the metal. The lizard turned around and looked down at Russel who stared into its eyes. The lizard roared and swung its claymore down, becoming embedded in the rock and sending shockwaves outwards.

Russel took the opportunity of the lizard's claymore becoming stuck in the ground and ran towards it. He arrived at its feet and looked up, seeing that all but a few minor areas were covered in metal armor. He continued to look for a weak point in the armor. But before he could he saw the claymore swinging back towards him. Russel rolled out of the way as the claymore passed between the lizard's legs, hitting him in the groin making the reptile howl.

'This thing isn't very bright…' Russel observed.

He ran back between the legs of the beast and continued his search, finding thick leather strips in between the armor pieces. Russel smiled and he raised his sword before realizing the claymore was coming back towards him. Russel dodged and the claymore became stuck in the ceiling. Russel quickly started to hack away at the leather strips covering the monster's left leg and revealed a large area of flesh. He started to hack away making deep lacerations all across the lizard's lower shin and ankle, making it scream loudly in pain. The lizard stomped its foot, sending out a powerful shockwave that sent Russel stumbling back. The lizard swung its claymore at Russel again, he jumped out of the way with barely any time to spare, earning him a grazing cut across his arm.

He gritted his teeth as he felt the sharp pain course through his body. He bit his tongue to dumb the pain from the cut and rushed back towards the lizard repeating his damage process on the lizards other leg. The lizard tried to stomp again and seeing this, Russel jumped onto the top of the lizard's foot, nullifying the attack's effect on him. The lizard thrust its blade downwards, missing Russel and removing the front half of its foot. The lizard roared in agony and fell onto its back.

Russel took his opportunity and ran across the lizards chest up to its neck. He found a small space in between the bottom of the lizard's helmet and chestplate and thrust his sword before moving it forcefully from side to side. The lizard screamed, but the scream quickly grew more and more strained until the giant lizard didn't move at all.

Russel breathed a sigh of relief waiting for the spell to fade. Unfortunately, it did not. The spell did not waver so Russel went to make sure the lizard was dead. Sure enough no movements of any kind, no breathing and no pulse came from the lizard. Russel scowled and sheathed his sword before yelling out at the casters disembodied voice.

"You really are a dishonest bitch." Russel yelled to her.

He started to hear hysterical laughing and started to growl, feeling a power build up within him. He quickly suppressed himself to make sure that a repeat of earlier wouldn't happen.

"What's so funny?" Russel growled.

"You actually believed me!? How stupid are you!? You do realize that the purpose of this spell is to kill you!" The caster laughed.

"Mind telling me what the prize is for using my soul to revive Satan? You get something out of it?" Russel tested her.

"What? How does someone like you know about that!?" The caster panicked.

'So that grouchy guy in my visions wasn't lying…' Russel thought.

"Well I thought surely there must be something good in it… Like a position of power, or some other sort of reward." Russel reasoned.

"It matters not what I will receive. Raising my lord is enough for me, and you are destined to be the catalyst for his rebirth." The caster spoke.

"If that's my destiny then it can fuck off." Russel said coldly as he walked towards the opposite hall of which he entered through. "Once I get out of this spell you're dead."

As he walked down the hall Russel started to hear a loud rumbling coming from the ground. He saw a hole in the ground popped open in front of him and started pouring lava into the tunnel-like hall he was in.

"Shit!" Russel cursed as he jumped over the forming puddle of lava.

He started to sprint as fast as he could down the hallway before feeling himself collide with something. He fell back and reached for his sword instinctively before seeing that it wasn't a lizard he bumped into.

"Damn that hurt…" Oliver whined, rubbing his head.

"Oliver!" Russel smiled, grabbing his arm and pulling him to his feet. "Let's go!"

Russel and Oliver began running in unison with each other away from the lava threatening to consume them.

"Do you know where the others are?" Oliver asked.

"No clue." Russel lied. "I did see that the lizards mutilated Frederick though."

"Damn it…" Oliver scowled.

"Any rough fights?" Russel inquired.

"Not really, just a few overgrown lizards." Oliver admitted.

"That's it? You lucky bastard…" Russel sighed.

The two of them quickly emerged into another large room where they saw a makeshift ladder leading up to an elevated piece of rock. The two quickly hurried up the ladder to relative safety and watched as the room around them filled with lava.

When the lava finally reached the bottom of their rock, Russel and Oliver had nowhere else to go. They were stuck upon the rock, awaiting their fate in its fiery depths. When miraculously, it stopped rising. The two looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well well, it seems that instead of one fate you receive another!" The casters voice echoed through the room.

"Who's there!?" Oliver yelled out in confusion.

Russel quickly drew his sword and kicked Oliver's side to get his attention. Oliver looked up at him and Russel motioned for him to stand.

"Be ready for a fight." Russel cautioned him.

Oliver nodded as he pulled himself to his feet and drew the sword at his hip.

"What kind of monster do you have for us this time?" Russel questioned.

"I'm so glad you asked!" The caster said cheerfully. "It's much more sinister than that overgrown lizard, but it has its brute force. And its as clever and sophisticated as the echo from last night as well."

Russel cursed as he steeled himself. He knew they were in for a hard fight, and the fact that the rock platform they stood upon wasn't very large or stable was unnerving. His thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of sloshing lava, and out of its depths emerged a giant scared being with two curved horns coming out of its head with pitch blade eyes. Russel took a step back in disgust at the mutilated body of this beast.

"Is that a demon!?" Oliver panicked.

"Not like one I've ever seen." Russel scoffed.

"This is a beast that would appear in your friend Fredericks nightmares quite frequently. Seemingly it came from stories he heard as a kid… Regardless, it seems like it'll give you a hard time so I ran with it." The caster said innocently.

The beast hoisted itself upon their platform, causing it to shake and tip from the overwhelming weight of the beast. The beast opened its mouth and released its first attack, a pressured blast of lava shooting straight towards them. But Russel couldn't make a scratch on the beats surprisingly rocky back. After his failure he circled back to where Oliver was still standing.

"Any idea how to beat this thing?" Oliver asked.

"I may have an idea…" Russel smirked. "I'll run left and bait its attack, you quickly kill it by going for the stomach."

"Will do." Oliver affirmed.

Russel looked over and smiled at Oliver before leaping into action. He ran left and lured the beast while Oliver ran right. Russel ran towards the beast in a slashing stance and the beast took the bait, launching a torrent of lava towards him.

"Now!" Russel yelled as he dodged.

Oliver arrived at the beast and started hacking at its stomach wildly, leaving wide and deep cuts all across its torso. The beast fell over and back into the lava. Oliver breathed a sigh of relief and sheathed his sword. Russel ran towards him to praise him until he saw the beast leap back out of the water.

"Oliver!!" Russel panicked.

He leaped forward and pierced the beast through the heart as it attempted to flatten Oliver. When Russel hit the ground he was forced to struggle against the weight of the beast, whose rock covered back was already keeping it from crushing him. Russel grunted as he fought against the weight of the beast, eventually managing to toss it off his blade and back into the lava.

Russels vision began to blur and he heard one last sigh from the caster.

"Well that was disappointing…" She complained.